Appointed as CEO of Euro RSCG Skybridge, I inherited a company with a number of critical business issues. In particular, a dysfunctional management team.  I needed them to be able to work as a cohesive unit as well as harness the strengths of their respective departments.
I commisioned Alistair Delves and Y2B to implement a programme that could achieve this.
The Y2B approach was extremely thorough, not just relying on my perspective on what the problems and issues were but spending significant amounts of time with each management team member.

A two day workshop, prepared and moderated by Alistair was then carried out. This ensured every member of management could express their views, make worthwhile contributions and collectively agree on key goals and the steps needed to reach them.
The authority, knowledge and experience that Alistair brought to the table ensured that all the team regarded the process as extremely productive and enlightening.

The final report produced by Y2B became a blueprint for management focus and activity for the remainder of the financial year and beyond. Management decision making improved, team work blossomed and the company overall moved up a gear.

I would have no hesitiation in commisioning Y2B again to help with strategic or managerial issues that need ‘ a grown up, outside perspective’ and would recommend them to any company that could benefit from this unique resource.

John Hackney
Chief Executive, Euro RSCG Skybridge

Alistair has been an inspirational mentor to me over a number of years.
your 2nd brain has helped me establish my ecommerce business and taken a huge amount of interest in its development.  We are now poised to sell the business, and Alistair has helped formulate a suggested plan of action to help the purchaser take the company to new heights.
Of all Alistair’s many talents I would emphasise his uncanny ability to listen to a myriad of worries and doubts, and then cut to the very core of the problem. Whether it be short term problems, or long term strategy, his considered counsel is always relevant.
Tough truths are often hard to take, yet Alistair’s shrewd advice is always given with his unique brand of good humour. I cannot recommend your 2nd brain more highly.

Adam Norton
Founder of Gizmo and Widget
30th March 2010

Alistair takes me up in a helicopter to see challenging issues in a new perspective.
I find his insights and recommendations invaluable and highly supportive.

Peter Ryan
Chairman of Microloan Foundation

The trouble is that while your assistance was very useful in focusing my sights on my abilities, my conclusion at the end of it all was that I had got to my present advantaged position not through any identifiable ability or skill in a recognised discipline, but through a combination of luck and cunning that I could not rely on for the future.  Or to paraphrase your January pinup, Aristotle, I could not identify any talents of mine that intersected with the needs of the world.  At least, not in Transportation Planning!

I am not sure that this is the kind of enlightenment that your usual clients are looking for, but in my case it prompted me to do all that I could to cash in my chips while still ahead of the game.  I was very successful in achieving this.   We completed the sale on the Friday of the week before Northern Rock’s difficulties became public, mostly for cash, so you could say it was timed to perfection.  Due in part to the process we went through together.  Thank you.

Andrew Savell
Founding partner of SBAX

I've found that having a 2nd brain by my side has been an incredibly effective way of coalescing my thoughts and helping me to focus.

Working with Alistair and having access to his unique insights and perspective at looking at things has proved to be of enormous benefit to me enabling to not necessarily charge at something head on but to explore different avenues.

I would have no hesitation in continuing to work with my 2nd Brain and indeed deem it a necessity!

Garth Delikan
Founder of The Lifestyle Guy

"Your impact has been incredible and worth every penny”

Adrian O’Connor
CFO PCA 
by text on 19/12/09

"Alistair Delves' involvement in the development of RubberDuckMag.Com has been invaluable – and truly inspirational in transforming a great idea into an outstanding idea, with a robust framework and focussed direction. Alistair is treated very much a part of the team; hopefully for a very long time indeed."

Jon Saxon – Founder

"We used your 2nd brain to help the agency unearth a new strategic route. We explored positioning and people development in a program that lasted around 6 weeks. Alistair is a great listener but rigoruos that we faced the issues honestly and completly. He manages to encouraging, open enviroment with powerful focus. He always can disentagle the the important form the trivial.

Our programme was a success and was implemented fully and within the timeframe."

Hywel Davies
Founding Partner DLCF
Project 2003

"Alistair's tremendous listening skills, and ability to pull insights from an organization helped us enormously leverage the assets we were able to bring to our Clients's business. He has a creatively distinct way of conceptualizing issues and opportunities. This enabled us to quickly meet the needs of our Client, both strategically and executionally, in the way we organized and equipped our team"

Piers Yeld
Internal Business Director at Grey Advertising
Project 2002

"Alistair Delves is a highly professional business man whose services I have used and benefit from a number of times.

I have the greatest respect for his 2nd Brain strategic consultancy which has helped me clarify significant business issues and provided key insights to raise some projects to a new level of success.

Importantly, Alistair is a great listener and possesses an unwaivering skill to sweep aside the camouflage of encumbered strategic development to get back to action orientated plans.

I believe that his product is unique. His approach is wonderfully charismatic and his thinking is extremely broad - he gets the highest priase from me and I, like so so many others who have included him on thier team, will continue to draw great benefit from his contribution. I have no hesitation whatsoever in acting as a referee, he is an individual and a very nice man todo business with"

Clive Holland
Executive Managing Director
Grey International
Project 1999; 2001; 2003

"As the Director of Strategic development for Reuters Media I commissioned your 2nd brain on a couple of strategic projects.

As we were in the throws of a repositioning I needed an extra brian to help facilitate the develoment of some key initiatives. Critically, Alistair brought clarity to these issues, highlighted some key opportunities and enabled me to present an alternative but informed view to the team and expedite an agreed position without the hassle usually associated with internal reviews.

What I particularly liked was the way I was given space to formulate ideas and crystalise my thinking with Alistair playing a crucial enabling role.

Through his listening and re-referencing programmes I was able to proactivly manage the strategic agenda and achieve my overall mission."

Geoffrey Wheating Director, Strategic Development,
Reuters Media UK & Ireland
Project 1999; 2000

"Alistair proved a clear eyed guide through the trees of the forest. I was running a company in a very competitive East European country and was getting bogged down; he cleared my mind, focussed me on the critical success factors, and got me going again.

He also proposed ideas I had not foreseen which added a huge amount of value.
I didn’t know getting ‘put straight’ could be so pleasant!
Next time I’m in trouble I have his number."

Mark Jezewski founder of Training Solutions
Formerly managing director of Ogilvy Advertising in Warsaw
Projects 1998; 1999

“I have worked with Y2B a number of times over the last several years and expect that I will continue to use their unique approach into the future.  

They have provided extremely valued support at critical moments under a variety of circumstances.  

One example was helping align the management board of an integrated agency through a difficult period of transition. After a period of in depth listening across all levels of the company, Y2B’s diagnosis and assessment was very accurate and incisive presenting a challenging strategy on the way forward back to the board.  

Under happier circumstances, I hired Y2B to help integrate a new team into a new media agency joint venture. The process was a very motivating one for all involved and was essential in providing a successful integration which left everyone with a genuinely enthusiastic and positive attitude on the future. At the same time Y2B provided a new management team with a wider view on its future plans and a practical programme for achieving them.  

The most recent experience was to support my own consultancy as it conducted the most in depth customer consultation ever conducted by an industry media research currency which was under severe scrutiny at the time. I asked Y2B to help draw together the customer feedback and act as a sounding board for the development of my own thinking. As always the experience of working with them was extremely positive and enjoyable and helped me maintain clarity and direction in the formulation of the strategic recommendations back to the board.  

Y2B are very user friendly and represent a positive force under any circumstances.

I have no hesitation in highly recommending them.”  

Mark Cross founder of MC2
Projects 1994; 1997; 1999; 2001; 2004

YOUR 2nd BRAIN

Jo Bird and Co Ltd employed the services of Alistair Delves at a time when the Company was at a crossroads and lacking direction. It was vital that an outsider came in to give an overview of the business - its origin, market, product base, strengths and weaknesses. We didn't know where we were going and were rapidly ending up somewhere else! Alistair started by simply observing and listening to management and their assessment, and applied equal importance to the views of production staff. The result was a clear definition of where the Company had lost its focus and a structured approach to the future.

The result has been dynamic and we are now keenly focussed on our niche markets, the customer is king, and we have turned a hitherto ailing Company into a model of success. Indeed our Export achievements in the last three years has resulted in the Directors being invited to a Buckingham Palace Garden Party - unthinkable in the late 1990's. Alistair's refreshing and original approach, clarity of thought and good listening skills have served us very well and we would not hesitate to recommend him.

Jo Bird, founder of Jo Bird & Co. Ltd
Projects: 1993; 1997; 1998

“Alistair has a great ability to listen and then reflect back to you the critical issues you need to be addressing.  He helps me see the wood, not the trees, and then we focus on how to ensure the wood flourishes.”

Richard Gutch CEO of Futurebuilders England
Projects 2001/02; 2002/03; 2004/05; 2005/06

"I have known Alistair for nearly twenty years as a business colleague, a client and a trusted friend.

Unique is a much-overused word, yet Alistair really does bring to a business relationship a unique range of skills and abilities, underpinned by insights and an original approach that provides the opportunity for a fresh look at issues.

Alistair’s approach makes you think, to reconsider not only the approach to an issue or problem, but often from a viewpoint that had never been on the horizon let alone your agenda. Such an approach is of course challenging, but Alistair always brings a calm and user-friendly approach to the task in hand.

Above all there are three key features of Alistair Delves work that I have come to value: his refreshing and original approach; his great listening skills; and access to his brain that enables him to put it all together to deliver results."

Derek Prentice founder of Customer First
Formerly Deputy Director of Consumers Association
Projects in 1992/3; 1999/02

"I have known Alistair Delves for some 23 years.

When I was the IDV client & he was with Y&R I always valued his calm measured firm and rational responses to all my wild and whacky suggestions.

He was more than an agency man but rather in my mind a valued member of my team.

Over the last couple of years we worked together on a number of start up initiatives and I valued his ability to listen carefully (a lost art for many) followed by his conceptual and strategic thinking, leading to sound commercial solutions. He is always user friendly, focused and a true SECOND BRAIN."

James Espey
MD of IDV
CEO of Cambridge-Online- Learning; CEO of Mimecast